hi, i had a bsod/hang so did a chkdsk to make sure things are ok.
it was the usual chkdsk driveletter: /x
as i have 4 partitions (2 on each of my 2 drobos) i usually run them one at a time, v1 and v2 drobos.
each drobo has a (fairly full 2gb partition) and a smaller one
when i ran it on the 2 smaller ones (1 on each drobo) it completed and didnt give any other error messages (or success messages) other than the usual Stage1-2-3-complete.
but when i ran it on the larger partition of the v1, it did the same but this time it specifically gave me an extra message called this:
“Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.”
(im running the chkdsk on the last one now, the larger v2, and will see if that shows up as well)
its nice to see no errors, and to get an “all clear”, but the question is why did it tell me this message only on the larger v1 partition, and not on the other 2 ones? does it mean that there “were” problems which it corrected?
btw the one that gave me that message also happens to be the one where it had to dismount the volume as part of the process. (maybe related?)[hr]
on first one it was this:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is DroboL2.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed.
&
2147480810 KB total disk space.
550172020 KB in 31500 files.
etc
on 2nd one it was this:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is V2DroboL2.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed.
&
2147480810 KB total disk space.
550179936 KB in 31498 files.
etc
and the 3rd one (larger one was this)
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is DROBO.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
&
2147480810 KB total disk space.
2120256404 KB in 419092 files.
etc
ok, here are the results of the final v2 (larger) partition checks:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is V2Drobo.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed.
2147480810 KB total disk space.
2104913012 KB in 418650 files.
(no extra all clear message)[hr]
(it looks like all 3 partitions that did not need any dismounting, didnt have the extra all clear mesage)
(the one which did, is my primary v1 drobo which is where i install some programs to, so my desktop/icons are often pulling off icon info from it, so its understandable why it needed a dismount etc)
maybe some corelation with that and chkdsk, but i dont know for sure?
btw here’s some more chkdsk info for you: (using winxp sp2 chkdsk)
having had more recently more of those unable to write $mft windows messages and having to do machine reboots, i had lots of practice running chkdsk on all 4 volumes. (no system dating was used with tip so its probably a windows thing?)
none of the volumes had any errors reported, but to save time i was able to run chkdsk’s in parallel.
eg:
gen 1 drobo (volume1)
& at same time
gen2 drobo (volume 2)
and once both complete:
gen1 drobo (volume 2)
& at same time
gen2 drobo (volume 1)
my gen 1 and gen 2 are virtually identical (eg the data is backed up g1v1-to-g2v1 and g1v2-to-g2v2) so i felt comfortable running 2 “chkdsk /x” sessions for opposing volumes on DIFFERENT drobos.
= no problems for me
(would never knowingly run it on 2 volumes on the same drobo as that would seem a bad idea)
(at one point i also tried to chkdsk volume on both gen drobo’s at the same time, eg g1v1 & g2v1, and it worked, but i think to play safe i wont do it again, just in case something was to happen and both volume1’s got corrupt or something. at least by chkdsk’ing a different volume at the same time, it should minimise risks.)
i dont recommend doing multiple chkdsks etc, but just fyi to post my experience with it
While it should be perfectly safe to run ChkDsk on two Drobo volumes living on the same Drobo chassis (I’m sure it happens with DroboPros and higher on occasion), you are very wise to avoid “doubling up” on the workload for a chassis.
Not to mention, concurrent Chkdsk on multiple volumes on the same chassis would make it tremendously slow.
In fact, the lack of concurrent access to multiple volumes on the same chassis gave me a measurable performance boost on my server.
Back when I was still running WHSv1… WHSv1 with single-volume Drobos (using the GPT hack/workaround) gave me measurably better performance compared to WHSv1 with multiple 2TB volumes on each Drobo.
I upgraded to WHS2011 not long after because the GPT hack/workaround made me too uncomfortable.
Back to your application, you might want to create a batch file that stops any services that might be using the Drobo via NET STOP servicename or SC stop servicename, run your Chkdsks, then restart the services via NET START servicename or SC start servicename.
That’s what I had set up for my WHSv1 machine - stopped all the WHS storage services, run Chkdsk, restart the services.
(its nothing urgent but after another mft$ error/unavailability, i restarted and did another set of checkdisks)
this time though, both volumes of my drobo gave the “no errors found” checkdisk message, as below:
chkdsk letter: /x
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is DROBO.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
…
0 KB in bad sectors.
…
and on 2nd volume:
chkdsk letter: /xThe type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is DroboL2.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)…
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)…
Security descriptor verification completed. Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
…
0 KB in bad sectors.
…
i’m glad that no errors were found, its just interesting why the message arent always consistent…maybe a windows bug?
actually i think i’ll pull off a diagnostics just in case theres something more sinister…
(just to close out this thread with a satisfied icon, i got the diagnostics files checked and there were no errors with the drives) - i’ve come to the conclusion that i should see “Windows has checked the file system and found no problems” for peace of mind like docchris said (± a reboot)
